The Roses
The Roses are one of the eight founding teams of the Midwest Combat Chess League, and actively competing. They are remarkable for having one of the more stable fighter rosters in the MCCL, including their king Nathaniel Nesheim-Case, who has served in that position since The Roses inception eight seasons ago. Though he has led them to the finals twice, they have yet to win a championship. History 2007 The inaugural season of the MCCL was a successful one for the Roses. King Nathaniel Nesheim-Case became immediately apparent as the best chess player in the league, frequently outmaneuvering his opponents with a minimal amount of captures. The finished 6-1 in the regular season, losing their only match to the Dragons, whom they went on to face in the Championship match. The bout was an instant classic, catapulting both teams to stardom, though the Dragons claimed more of the recognition along with the victory. 2008 The Roses responded to their 2007 championship loss with a renewed focus on chess fundamentals, neglecting their combat training. They finished 5th in the league, missing out on the postseason with a record of 3-4. The salt in that wound was that their only wins came against the 6th, 7th, and 8th place teams in the league. 2009 The Roses rebounded well during the 2009 Players' Strike, due to it allowing King Nesheim-Case to spend more time developing more advanced strategies to outmaneuver his opponents. They finished the truncated season undefeated with 4 wins and no losses, and after defeating the Culverins in the semifinals, were set to capture their first championship by defeating the Legion. The match was going well for the Roses, until Nathaniel Nesheim-Case King's Challenged Mike Lubke after Lubke fouled Roses star player Will Bradshaw. Nesheim-Case lost the bout and the championship. 2010 The Roses' 2010 season bore a striking resemblance to their 2008 season, once again garnering a 3-4 record and 5th place in the league. Roses fans were vindicated somewhat, however, as the Roses defeated the Legion in week 2 of the regular season. 2011 The Roses slipped further in the 2011 season, finishing 6th place in the league with a record of 2-5. This was attributed to their growing reputation of poorly training their fighters, and many players started to seek trades away from the team for less than the average contract cost. 2012 The 2012 year looked to be one where the Roses would start making a comeback during the preseason, as a renewed focus on training had them performing well in exhibition bouts. Despite this, the Roses failed to win a single match until the final week of play, when they denied the Cavaliers a place in the postseason. The Roses had performed well all season, but had just barely lost a number of obscenely close matches. Their final record was 1-6. 2013 The Roses made a bold play in the draft with the acquisition of Robert Korsmo, seemingly attempting to focus on him as a key combatant piece to support Nescheim-Case's chess strategy. It seemed to be playing out well in the season until Korsmo was injured in a bout against Noah Stein during their match with the Dragons. In the end, the Roses finished 4th in the league with a record of 4-3, making the postseason but losing their semifinal match against the Dragons. It was a solid season, with their 3 losses at the hands of the 3 teams ranked higher than them in the end. 2014 The 2014 season was a solid one for the Roses, Finishing with a record of 5-2. Their only losses came at the hands of The Phoenix, and The Dragons, the latter of which would go on to defeat the Roses again and subsequently beat the Phoenix to win the championship title.Category:Teams